Mountain Gate, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Crops well matched to these conditions include tomato, artichoke, fig, and california poppy — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Mountain Gate, no two yards are alike.
A low spot, a south-facing slope, or a stand of trees moves the frost date and sun across a single Mountain Gate lot. Enter your address and we'll score 1,086 plants against your land's actual soil, sun, and frost.
We read public map data around Mountain Gate — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Mountain Gate — the short answer
Mountain Gate, California: USDA zone 9b, about 300 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 12
- Shasta County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 9
- Shasta County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~300
- Shasta County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 1K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. No 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid, so the hard-freeze dates are Shasta County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Mountain Gate's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Mountain Gate's 300-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Mountain Gate
Each reading below is measured for Mountain Gate itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsMountain Gate runs about 300 days between hard freezes (read from Shasta County, the closest normal to Mountain Gate) — close to year-round growing.
Frost is rarely the limit here; winter plantings are as real as summer ones, and the harder question is which crops shrug off the summer heat.
Grow cool-season crops through the mild winter, and choose heat-tolerant varieties for the summer beds.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredMountain Gate sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b.
The zone sets which perennials, shrubs, and fruit trees live through an average winter here — a plant rated for a colder zone is a safe bet, one rated warmer needs winter protection or gets treated as an annual.
Match perennials and fruit to the zone before you buy, so nothing you plant is a gamble against the cold.
USDA PHZM 2023
The kind of country Mountain Gate is in
Mountain Gate sits in the Central California Foothills and Coastal Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Mediterranean California. That is read at Mountain Gate's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Shasta County is mostly Cascades. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Mountain Gate
Plants matched to Mountain Gate's USDA zones 9b, ordered by how much hardiness margin each has here — the ones with room to spare at both ends of this town's band lead. Each links to its full growing profile.
Is it too late to plant in Mountain Gate?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 12 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 9 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
What's on the federal record near Mountain Gate
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Mountain Gate. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Unnamed PropertyMining · 350 ft
- 033N004W16M002MNitrate · 2300 ft
- MG NOBLE OIL CORPBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- K C's Corner MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- SPORTSMANS EXPRESSBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- Sportsmans ExpressUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- FAWNDALE ROCK AND ASPHALTBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- Lehigh Southwest Cement CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- CALPORTLAND CEMENT PLANTToxics Release Inventory · 1.3 mi
- CALPORTLAND CEMENT PLANTBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- USDA USFS R05 REDDING CABrownfields · 1.3 mi
- UPSBrownfields · 1.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Mountain Gate's center, not your beds. Run your own address for what's upwind of you specifically.
Environmental Intelligence
The counts behind that headline — every source type on the record near Mountain Gate.
Total Sites
585
within ~10 miles of Mountain Gate
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
4 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Mountain Gate
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Mountain Gate
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Mountain Gate, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Mountain Gate — Mining (185 sites) and Brownfields (316 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in Mountain Gate
Get exact proximity distances to contamination sources for your specific parcel — plus soil, sun, drainage, and 1,086 plant recommendations.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Mountain Gate average
Your land is one point inside Mountain Gate
Everything above resolves to Mountain Gate as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 1K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Shasta County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid. Your parcel is one point inside that footprint. Slope, tree cover, a low spot that pools cold air, and what is in the soil are all resolved at the address, and none of them are visible at town scale. That is the honest boundary of this page, and the reason the next step is a reading of your own ground rather than a better local average.
Your Lot vs the Mountain Gate Average
Mountain Gate Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Mountain Gate
- ●One soil character for all of Mountain Gate
- ●Frost dates read at Mountain Gate's scale: Feb 12 to Dec 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Mountain Gate's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Mountain Gate
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Mountain Gate, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Mountain Gate averages can't show:
We read public map data around Mountain Gate — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Mountain Gate average
How we know this about Mountain Gate
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Shasta County’s record, because none resolves here; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Soil is not read at town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-resolution survey in our data, which is why you will find no soil grid here rather than a statewide one wearing a local label. The resolution ledger below names every figure this page inherited.
Common questions about Mountain Gate
When does frost risk typically end in Mountain Gate?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Mountain Gate typically lands around Feb 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — earlier than the light-frost dates most charts quote. That marks the hard freeze, not the last light frost — lighter frosts keep biting past it, which is why tender transplants here wait until about Mar 5.
When is the first frost in Mountain Gate?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Mountain Gate typically arrives around Dec 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 25, so the watching starts about Nov 9 — about 300 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Mountain Gate?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Mountain Gate sees about 300 frost-free days — roughly Feb 12 through Dec 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 5 to Nov 25, about 265 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Mountain Gate?
The federal record around Mountain Gate is a meaningful one — 585 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (316), the nearest Mining record under a tenth of a mile out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Mountain Gate?
From about Nov 9 the job here turns from planting to protecting — the last start even a 30-day crop can finish. As the season closes around the first 28°F hard freeze near Dec 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals), three moves buy time: row cover or an old sheet over tender plants on still, clear nights; water the soil the afternoon before a freeze, so it holds warmth overnight; and harvest tomatoes, peppers and basil before Dec 9. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Mountain Gate's scale — its 9b band and its 300-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Mountain Gate's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
What this page reads at Mountain Gate’s own scale
4 of the readings below were taken at Mountain Gate's own scale — the 1,264 acres it covers and 585 documented sites around it; 6 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Mountain Gate's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 585 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Mountain Gate, the closest Mining record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Mountain Gate's boundary and the 1,264 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Mountain Gate sits in the Central California Foothills and Coastal Mountains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Mountain Gate has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Shasta County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Mountain Gate's 1,264 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Shasta County
- The candidate plant list — California's curated set, filtered to this zone band and re-ordered by how much margin each has herefrom California
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Shasta County
- The growing challenges every California grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom California
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Shasta County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Mountain Gate's 1,264 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Mountain Gate you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,264 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Mining record under a tenth of a mile out, measured from the town centrehow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — measured at your address, and averaged away by any Mountain Gate-wide figureread your own land →
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